Pat Rabbitte (Dublin South West, Labour)

I have not heard any answers to my questions to the Taoiseach. When will this blitz start? When will it finish? How much money is being allocated to it? Will the old register be refurbished or will we start anew? How does the Taoiseach propose that the task force will have access to gated communities? Has any thinking been done on any of these issues?

It is true that Deputy Quinn suggested that the enumerators would be sent out with the census in one hand and a registration form in the other. It is true that now, on May 3, we have changed our position because the census was on 23 April and there would be no point in persisting with that solution. We have new solutions and we set them out in the Bill Deputy Gilmore introduced last week and which the Minister blustered down.

What are the answers to the questions I raised? What is wrong with bringing legislation before the House to enable the CSO to transfer the box on the census form with the name and address to an electoral register?

Has Deputy Cullen finished speaking? Perhaps we could provide a box in the electronic voting machines for it.

All we need is the name, address and nationality. That does not break any confidentiality. There is no legal prohibition, or right to withhold consent, to being registered as an elector. The CSO has the best and most up-to-date information. Can we provide for that much to be transferred? None of the private data about income, earnings or family size will be transferred.

The Government seems to be making it up as it goes along, and Ministers come into the House claiming credit for whatever rhyme-off of statistics their back-up staff give them on a particular day. However, whenever anything goes wrong or when blame must be taken, they blame someone else. The Minister for the Environment, Heritage and Local Government, Deputy Roche, blamed the local authorities all weekend. The Tánaiste and Minister for Health and Children, Deputy Harney, blames the HSE when one tries to find out about accident and emergency departments. When we find out the Dublin Port tunnel will spue traffic into the left lane and worsen the traffic from Whitehall out, the National Roads Authority or the Port tunnel company will be to blame. There is never blame on the Government benches when something goes wrong.

Will the Taoiseach answer the questions I raised? How much money is allocated? When will it start and finish? Will it be a new register? Will it be reliable?

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